Community

Translate

Tag: #marketing #book #review

Seth Godin is my go to person on the internet when it comes to reading good stuff, especially about marketing. Because in Marketing it’s NOT always about what’s right or wrong/ good or bad/ black or white, but what really INSPIRES you! While I have been reading his blogs (since forever) that touch upon a myriad of topics, this is a first time I have read one of his books interestingly named “All Marketers Are Liars”.

Now I guess my reflex retort to a statement like this would be “hey…you watch your tongue!” because for a marketer (this is an assumption…it could just be me) this is just below the belt. So, when you see a marketing bestseller by a marketing guru called “All Marketers Are Liars” you are bound to be intrigued and thus begins a successful story telling which BTW is what this book is all about.

Who should read this book?

Marketing professionals who are grappling in the dark with hackneyed marketing stunts that doesn’t interest their target customers anymore.

People who want to start marketing with a fresh perspective on a clean slate.

People seeking an explanation to why Marketers are NOT liars (like me)

Key Takeaways:

Marketers are a special kind of liars. Marketers lie to consumers because consumers demand it. Marketers tell the stories, and consumers believe them.

A great story is true. Not true because it’s factual, but true because it’s consistent and authentic. Great stories are trusted. Trust is the scarcest resource we’ve got left. As a result, no marketer succeeds in telling a story unless he has earned the credibility to tell that story.

A marketer can spend plenty on promoting a product, but unless consumers are actively engaged in believing the story, nothing happens.

Marketers are not liars; they are just story tellers. Consumers are liars who tell them stories they believe in. Successful marketers are just the providers of stories that consumers choose to believe.

There are only two things that separate success from failure in most organizations today:

Invent stuff worth talking about.

Tell stories about what you’ve invented

“Great stories are subtle.

Great stories happen fast.

Great stories don’t appeal to logic, but they often appeal to our senses.

Great stories are rarely aimed at everyone.

Great stories don’t contradict themselves.

And most of all, great stories agree with our worldview.”

This book serves the purpose… it makes you believe in the storytelling mechanism, in telling people what they already know but want to hear from you. Surely marketing is much more than a creating a make believe concept for consumers to get on-board but at the very crux of it…yes, people will ask what’s your story!